Judge overturns verdict for 'Price is Right' model

View full sizeFILE - In this February 2008 publicity image released by CBS Entertainment, host Drew Carey hosts pauses during a taping of of "The Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular," one of six new specials to be broadcast on the CBS Television Network. A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday overturned an $8.5 million jury verdict awarded to a former model on the show after determining that he had not properly instructed the panel. A retrial will be scheduled in Brandi Cochran's case versus the show's producers. (AP Photo/CBS, Monty Brinton, File)

LOS
ANGELES — A judge has overturned an $8.5 million verdict awarded
to a former "Price is Right" model in a pregnancy discrimination case
and ruled a new trial is necessary.

Judge Kevin Brazile ruled Tuesday that he didn't properly instruct
the jury that ultimately came to a 9-3 decision in Brandi Cochran's
favor last year, City News Service reported. He based his ruling on new
legal guidance from the state's Supreme Court.

Cochran convinced jurors that the show's producers discriminated
against her after she became pregnant and they refused to allow her to
return to the show.

Her attorney, Carney Shegerian, said Wednesday that Brazile's ruling
was proper and he expects the damages to go higher in the case.

"I think on re-trial I'll get triple or quadruple that," he said.

Brazile determined he should have instructed the jury to decide
whether pregnancy discrimination was a substantial factor in the
producers' decision to keep Cochran from rejoining the cast after her
child was born. He cited the divided verdict as a factor warranting a
new trial, which will likely occur later this year.

A spokesman for show producers FremantleMedia declined to comment on the ruling.